Ambulance Cut

Someone is either doing something obviously dangerous, suggesting a cunning plan that can't possibly go wrong, or has just found out what it is he's eating. Cut directly to an ambulance flying down the street, sirens blaring. A variation of this for the "cunning plan that can't possibly go wrong" would be a Gilligan Cut to the character trying to explain his actions to the cops just before he's being told his Miranda rights. Another variation can be used involving the fire department coming to put out a fire the character caused (whether or not the character gets injured from it is entirely up to the writer).

Much like a Description Cut or Gilligan Cut, the actual injuries are generally left to the viewer's imagination, but occasionally you will actually see the character falling victim to Amusing Injuries first.

Can also be Played for Drama, but usually without the quick cut associated with the comic usage.

Examples of Ambulance Cut include:

Film

• There's Something About Mary:

"We got a bleeder!"

• Near the beginning of Up, young Carl ventures out across a beam in the attic of a decrepit old house to retrieve a balloon. The beam snaps, and we cut to an ambulance.
• In The Cannonball Run, J.J. drives a motorboat and gets distracted waving to some women. Victor tries to warn him about a third boat ahead of them and the trope plays. This actually affects the plot as the ambulance ride gives them the idea to use one in the race.
• The Party: Used near the end, after the hostess of the party repeatedly faints off a balcony and into soap-filled water.

Live-Action TV

• In Father Ted, Jack accidentally ends up at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Some time later, a member of the group spots him in a pub and attempts to intervene with his drinking, resulting in an ambulance cut.
• Hancock's Half Hour: In the classic TV episode "The Blood Donor", our hero has just given a pint of blood and discovered that he belongs to a rare blood group. Back home, fretting that his rare blood might not go to "the right sort of person", he decides to sharpen a bread knife. Cue Stock Footage of ambulance, and guess who needs the blood.
• News Radio: Bill tries chewing his nicotine patch. Three guesses what happens next.
  • Another episode begins with Matthew jumping out of the fridge to scare Mr. James, who goes into a fit of laughter, clutching his chest. Cue ambulance.
• Knowledge of the trope leads to momentary audience confusion in the Doctor Who episode "The Eleventh Hour": The Doctor gets clobbered with a cricket bat, and then we cut to an ambulance pulling up at a hospital. The Doctor is not in the ambulance, and does not appear in the following scene within the hospital (nor in fact does the ambulance, which apparently is just there to make it clear that it's a hospital).
• The Corner Gas Christmas episode "Merry Gasmas" uses this trope four different times. The first three are flashbacks to previous Christmases. Emma says her eggnog tastes off and Oscar tells her to drink it anyway, cut to an ambulance. Emma tells Oscar to be careful with the sharp carving knives, cut to an ambulance. Emma again tells Oscar to be careful with the knives, so Oscar gives them to a very young Brent, cut to an ambulance. At the end of the episode, Brent climbs onto a shaky ladder to take down some mistletoe, time for another ambulance cut. Emma watches the ambulance pull away and says, "Same damn thing every year."
• Steptoe and Son used a variation featuring a fire engine instead of an ambulance.
• In one episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Lois gets fired and the family tries to cut their budget while Lois is unemployed. When people in the neighbourhood find out, they start sending them canned goods. While they reluctantly accept them, Lois goes into a rant about how people only ever donate the crap they don't want. Hal says the olives he's eating are perfectly fine, and Lois points out the can he's eating from is supposed to be peaches. Cue the speeding ambulance.
  • In another episode, Dewey begins dancing with his babysitter, who really gets into the dancing. Cut to an ambulance driving away outside the house, with Dewey waving goodbye.
• Seinfeld:

"I'm an eggplant!"

• Black Books, after Manny swallows The Little Book Of Calm.
• Done in Last of the Summer Wine where Nora and Ivy joke about showing off their "Flapper" outfits to Compo (who had a thing for Nora), cut to an Ambulance and then a hospital waiting room. This is because prior to filming that episode Bill Owen who played Compo passed away, and they wrote Compo out with a heart attack.
• Naturally enough given its premise, London's Burning used a variation on the theme at least Once an Episode, cutting from this week's fire or accident to Blue Watch being dispatched from Blackwall. Not Played for Laughs, however.

Video Games

• Cooking Sama (not to be confused with Cooking Mama) has this happen twice.

Web Comics

• This is a Running Gag in PvP.
• This Nerf Now strip.
• Questionable Content: "I think my neck just popped!"

Western Animation

• From The Simpsons episode "Homer and Apu" (in season five), Homer buys a pack of ham that expired in 1989 (it was 1994 at the time this episode aired). The first time he eats it, Homer gets a horrible stomachache (but keeps eating!), then it cuts to the ambulance. After Homer spends some time at the hospital, he returns to the store and complains to Apu that the ham made him sick. Apu then bribes Homer with ten pounds worth of bad shrimp, which is then followed by a jump cut back to the same footage of the ambulance. (The ambulance itself is Stock Footage for the show. It was used when Mr. Burns went to the hospital in the season two episode "Blood Feud", and in "Homer's Triple Bypass" after Homer passes out from a heart attack after Mr. Burns yells at him for being a lazy, incompetent worker.)
  • Also, in the season eight episode "Lisa's Date with Density", Lisa asks Milhouse if he can deliver a note to Nelson Muntz. The note reads "Guess who likes you?", Nelson looks back and sees Milhouse wiggling his eyebrows. Jump cut to Milhouse being wheeled out of the school on a gurney with everyone in the school watching.
  • While it lacks the actual cut, the spirit is the same. Homer decides that he's going to eat everything in the form of a power bar, and has a machine to compress things. He does so to fourteen pounds of sphagetti and possibly several other things, and eats the result. He then calmly picks up the phone and says "Hospital please."
• In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, Mr. Krabs is about to take a bite of a Krabby Patty that, if it were any more disgusting, would require EPA financial assistance. Immediately cut to an ambulance with the siren blaring. Cut back to Mr. Krabs, remarking "Oh, look, an ambulance." Then, he eats the burger and is rushed to the hospital.
  • There's also the episode where Squidward tries a Krabby Patty for the first time and becomes addicted. At the end, he breaks into the Patty Vault and eats all of the burgers. After SpongeBob remarks that they'll go right to his thighs...and then blow up, we see an explosion, and then a cut to the ambulance, with Squidward blown to pieces, all of his tentacles in a bucket.
• American Dad used a variation featuring a fire engine instead of an ambulance, when Roger goes so crazy from trying to keep the house clean that he spreads gasoline everywhere and lights a match. Cut to a fire truck passing by the restaurant at which Stan and Steve are dining.